"O thou who art gone away from me, when thou goest away my patience also departs until thy coming. By the decree of God thou art gone travelling, and I am cast into a pit of desire. As long as thou art a wayfarer thy friend will have no rest from weeping. What is this fate of mine? It has forsaken me, for sometimes I sit on the throne, sometimes in the cinders. This narrow heart of mine is so filled up with grief that it could not find room in a great plain sixty days' journey (in length).1 Mine eyes are seas in the amount of their moisture, and my heart is hell by the inexhaustibility of griefs. I am not to be blamed for impatience and powerlessness. Who can stay continually in the sea, or who can bear being in hell? What can befall me worse than this, for I could not think of a worse curse than this for my foe!" Ramin proceeded. The sound of his trumpets reached to heaven, the dust of his hosts was like a cloud; but Ramin's tears were the rain from it. Although he pondered that discourse in his heart, and the parting from Vis grieved him, he also was afflicted. His heart was knotted, and on his face gloom settled. None can see that anyone is a lover unless at a great distance he sees the grief of love. If he have patience in separation, that man knows not love, and it does not become him. Though Ramin was the lord of the land and chief of his brother's hosts, his heart in his realm without Vis was like 255 a fish without water. He travelled over | his land, everywhere he was famed and magnified. Wherever his command went, everywhere evil-doing was chased away. Gurgan became so secure that sheep and wolves were together, and the wolves shepherded the sheep. Folk drank and rejoiced so much that, so to say, the rivers of that land were all of wine. By his justice every man (was enabled to) sit with minstrels. In fear of him every enemy was subdued. There was peace from wild beasts as well as from evil-doers. And he held Ispaan as his 1 Edji, 263-stage, league, also road, path. R., 462, 930. 2 Uchobnobdian. Persian, choban-a shepherd. th VIS AND RAMIN PART IN ANGER 225 residence, and Djordjan, Re, Haval, and Bagdad were his. No one had better or more numerous troops than he. By his virtue and justice every soul was at rest. The lands were beautified, the trees bore fruit, and every man in that land thanked God for this state of affairs. 256 | CHAPTER XLII RAMIN FALLS IN LOVE WITH GUL RAMIN began to travel in all directions in his lands, to inquire into affairs of State, to hunt, and to tilt. He went to Amian, and at Gorab the local notables and the peers of monarchs, Shahp'hur and Rap'hed, came to meet him. In that land they were grandees, and noteworthy for their birth. They entertained him in a manner befitting him. In the morning they went to hunt, and in the evening they sat carousing and making merry. As in the chase he had always his sword in his hand for the lions and panthers, and bow and arrow for game, so when he was indoors he had a glass in his hand. Thus pleasantly they rejoiced; but he could not in this way put away the thought of Vis from his heart, either in the field or in the house. One day he was going to the chase when he saw a maid like the sun. Her name was Gul. In form and beauty she was without blemish. She was a flower of spring, gladdening the heart, scattering grief; a doer of righteousness, a ravisher of the heart in a moment; sovereign of beauties, skilfully attracting youths; a healer of the sick, a consoler of the afflicted. Her face was like a rose257 garden, and her hair black and curly, as thick as sugarcanes. The form of her hair, which fell to her ankles, was a rope2 to bind lovers, and (ill) Fate had not yet smelt her out. On her tiny lips there was a taste of candy, and in that jacinth appeared a setting of pearl. Her eyelashes 1 Qalbi, var., qalibi, 244. 3 2 Toilo, 260, 279--leg-rope for horses. RAMIN FALLS IN LOVE WITH GUL 227 had been taught archery by the Ap'hkhazians.1 In colour and perfume they imaged forth amber. Her eyebrows (? shaped) like the (new) moon, her arrow2 was musk, and the arrows of her eyelashes pierced the hearts of young men. One of her lips was like a rose bestrewed1 with musk, and the other was like immortality. Stone was the slave of her heart, and steel the bondman of her beauty. Flower of coral5 was the image of her cheeks, and her form was a juniper-tree of flesh and blood. One like her has never been seen. The whiteness of her body was like veiled crystal. She held her head high in her great complacency as one who made lovers to pine. In the excessive richness of her adornment she was like a treasure-house, in the abundance of jewels and pearls she was like an unopened pearl-shell. From her crown the moon flashed, from her face the sun, from her teeth the stars, and from her neck dawns. In her pride she was like a youthful monarch, and in desirableness like life. In beauty like a spring garden, and in her great rarity like a unicorn.10 She had handmaidens beautiful like herselfChinese, Turkis, Greeks. There stood forty round Gul, like stars about the moon. 8 When Ramin saw the walking cedar and the living11 moon, which, like the sun, did not cease from glittering, his heart | grew weak; he gazed as one dazed, the arrow 258 fell from his hand. He could not believe her to be of Adam's race. "Are not these her soldiers like stars, and is not their mistress the moon? And if these be moons, is not their mistress the sun?" Ramin thought thus, and gazed. Then Gul, the ravisher of the patience of young men, came to Ramin to greet him, like an old friend. She saluted him and kissed his hand. She said: 1 Ap'hkhazia, on the Black Sea. Evidently this passage is due to the Georgian translator. Cf. Marr: "Odes." 2 Arqi arrow of birch. = 3 Isari? for sari, R., 869, 871, 1206 a support for vines, prop, 4 Motzrili, ? tzra-to sift. 5 Var., brotseuli, 276 (pomegranate), for dzotseuli. 7 Qasab. 8 Gemovnoba. 11 Sulieri-human, animated. 9 Mť'hiebi. 6 Gia. 10 Martorka. "Renowned monarch, our land is illumined by thee, as the heavens by the sun. Now night has fallen, be pleased to dismount at our house, rest here; be our guest this night. Let us entertain thee. We shall set before thee dainty dishes. I will offer thee in abundance birds and game, I will give thee pure wine, I will cast violets and roses before thee, I will dress a banquet befitting thee, I will entertain thee as thy soul loveth. Our custom is hospitality." Ramin fell so much in love with her that he forgot Vis's heart and love. The gaze of his eyes was treacherous as Fate. Vis's fear and alarm, alas! were justified. Woe to that heart which trusts to such a fickle lover, and woe to that man who is so fickle and perjured, unstable in love, and a breaker of oaths. Ramin answered Gul thus: 259 take thee to wife? "O moon, tell me but this: What is thy name, or of what race art thou? Hast thou as yet disposed of thy fair self or not? Wilt thou have me for thy husband or not? What price1 do thy parents demand from him who would How much dost thou ask for a kiss? If thou askest even a thousand souls, I grudge not even that." The eloquent2 sun and fleshly image (idol)3 thus replied: "As the sun is not hidden, so I and my name cannot be hidden. Neither do I wish to say this, that I am a certain Vhamani. My mother is Gohar, and my father, Rap'hed, is prince of this kingdom. My brother also is lord of Adrabadagan. I have many brothers, all Goliath-braves." In race and in virtue we are all alike, famous and renowned. On the mother's side and the father's I am unblemished." The one is of Gorab, and the other of Amian. My name is Gul. Like my name, I am a rose in colour, like a rose I am beloved, and I am scented like a rose. I was born fair from my mother, and brought up pure by my nurse. In 1 Mehari. 2 Enovani-endowed with speech. 3 Buthi, 240. 4 ? Bahman-nobody in particular; Spanish, fulano. ? cf. Vaaman, 25. R., 1222, Vadaman. 5 Goliat'hni, 31, dchabucni. 6 Uzado, 38. R., 1468. 7 Rose in Persian. The reader should remember that the Persian rose is pink. |